Justice, Peace & Integrity of Creation: General
Service
History: Since the last
chapter the General Council actively considered the place of JPIC in the
General Administration. This was accomplished by reviewing the history of the JPIC
in recent decades and exploring the present JPIC landscape. In 2001 the GA
formally established the mission and fundamental focus for service. The board
for the service was approved and Séamus Finn OMI (US) was appointed as
associate director. In 2002 Jun Mercado
was appointed as Director for the service.
Structure:
In 2001 the Superior General and Council endorsed the founding document which included a working plan for the GS-JPIC service to begin in January 2002. The board of GS-JPIC is presently comprised of Rufus Whitley, Oswald Firth, Jun Mercado, Daniel Corijn, Gilberto Piñon and Séamus Finn. The board reports to the General Council through the internal JPIC committee of the General Council. The primary objective of the service are: (1) to be present where decisions are made affecting the future of the poor and (2) to be a collaborative, supportive agent with the efforts initiated by the individual units of the congregation in promoting JPIC.
United Nations Presence
The Committee on Non-Governmental Organizations of the Department of Public
Information (DPI) of the United Nations, at its meeting July 2004, approved the
Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate for association with the
Department. The formal application process for this membership was initiated by
the JPIC service with the approval of the General Council in 2003. This
followed up on the goals outlined in the Vision and Planning document of the
General Council.
Associated NGOs are entitled to designate one person and one alternate representative.
These persons have access to United Nations facilities and to all open meetings
of the United Nations bodies, which they can attend as observers.
The Oblates have already participated in a number of UN events over the years and worked closely with the large number of religious and secular groups that are present at the UN. This has included the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, The Human Rights Commission, the Financing for Development process, and the Food and Agriculture Organization.
We look forward to increasing our presence at UN gatherings and processes as appropriate.
Socially Responsible Investing:
Ever since the second Vatican Council placed the social mission of the church at the heart of the mission of the mission church the search for both strategic and effective ways to realize the church’s message at all levels of society has been explored. One of the challenges that have been taken up is an examination of how the resources of religious congregations and other religious institutions can be integrated more fully into their mission. Engagement with multinational corporations, in which an ownership stake is held for investment purposes, is an approach to one aspect of this challenge that has been developed. The Oblates have been involved through the OIP in ethical investing since 1991. This involvement was incorporated into the JPIC service and affirmed by the GC in 2001.
Financial sector: Debt cancellation for Heavily Indebted Poor Countries and debt sustainability for developing countries; Microfinance; promotion of financial policies and regulations that support equitable development.
Retail/manufacturing sector: The race to the bottom by multinationals that travel the world in search of the cheapest labor force they can find has characterized the behavior of most of this sector over the past twenty years. Challenging these corporations on their ethical behavior especially the human dignity and rights of their workforce as well as their effect on the environment has resulted in some positive changes in policy and behavior.
Extractive sector: The search for cheap reliable energy sources continues throughout the world. The demand has been exacerbated by the increasing energy needs of developed countries and the huge demand created by economic development in China and India. Companies in this sector are being challenged to proactively develop codes that safeguard human dignity, protect human rights and are sensitive to local communities, and to develop practices that are least intrusive to the ecology of an area.
Pharmaceutical sector; The AIDS pandemic continues to rage throughout Africa and in some countries in Asia and the Caribbean. Pharmaceutical companies are being challenged to increase exponentially their response to this pandemic and its attendant diseases. The issues addressed include; Pricing, Donations, Patents.
Activities Realized Presentation to AORC 2002 Asia JPIC program in Colombo 2003 World Social Forum 2004 Aachen Peace Vigil 2003 CIAL JPIC Meeting 2003 More Active AEFJN Formalized GS-JPIC Rome-Washington European Treasurers 2002 FAO presence Asian Institute of Theology On the Drawing Board Globalization Santiago Chile 2004 Migration Mexico 2004 Border US/Mexico World Social Forum 2005 Growing the OMI Network Religious Leaders Peace Building (International Alert)
2004 Establishing formal UN presence Internationalizing Corporate Social Responsibility Work FAO Food Summit 2004
|
|
|
|